Today's intellectual-property ecosystem comprises several components and transactions, which have numerous interdependencies and challenges. Key players include IP developers, integrators, semiconductor foundries and, especially now, industry bodies. The goal is to provide a smooth, efficient system for IP to be scoped, developed, transferred, integrated and built within this ecosystem. To grow profitable businesses, the stakeholder companies must be able to estimate what costs and obstacles they face in passing IP through the IP ecosystem and to work with industry bodies to minimize them. This article will describe the IP ecosystem and discuss some aspects with respect to hard IP (mixed signal, RF, digital, for example). It will outline some of the challenges companies face today and methods being taken to advance this topic.
When we think about an IP ecosystem, the first observation is that there is a lack of clarity and organization about what this really is. What are the main objects in this ecosystem and how do they interact? Which transaction points between the different stakeholders/players are costly and ineffective today? A good place to start would be where to go to find answers in a material and coordinated fashion. Next, think about what is apparent in the ecosystem, from the fragmented knowledge understood today, focusing on one or two critical transaction points.
Standards, industry bodies
Many industry and standards bodies focus on specific engagements and strategic focus items relevant to founding companies. This has led to effective point-to-point engagements.
The Spirit interface standard, for example, is being developed around the needs of the founding members. Although effective, due to the direct nature of the engagement, these point-to-point projects do not help IP vendors and integrators understand where to go next or how to solve one problem in the context of the overall cost and inefficiency of the ecosystem.
The Virtual Socket Interface Alliance is an umbrella organization working with other industry organizations to ensure that all views are represented. This works well, for example, in VSIA's engagement with the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA), which is working on the hard-IP portion of the VSIA Quality IP Metric. The FSA has a broad membership base and represents the important and unique view of fabless companies and key foundries. The VSIA, technically deep and nonaligned, focuses on developing standards for interfaces between different points in the ecosystem. These groups complement each other and expand the resources toward solving key IP challenges while ensuring that many different views are represented.
The ecosystem today
What does this ecosystem look like? The figure below shows a holistic view, indicating key phases of IP development and movement. Interestingly, the foundries (in tan) play a role in this and their issues and interchanges with the IP vendors (red) and IP integrators (yellow) must be integrated into this ecosystem.
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